muttrc

NAME

DESCRIPTION

A mutt configuration file consists of a series of "commands".
Each line of the file may contain one or more commands. When
multiple commands are used, they must be separated by a semicolon
(";").

The hash mark, or pound sign ("#"), is used as a
"comment" character. You can use it to annotate your
initialization file. All text after the comment character to the end
of the line is ignored.

Single quotes ("'") and double quotes (""")
can be used to quote strings which contain spaces or other special
characters. The difference between the two types of quotes is
similar to that of many popular shell programs, namely that a single
quote is used to specify a literal string (one that is not
interpreted for shell variables or quoting with a backslash [see
next paragraph]), while double quotes indicate a string which
should be evaluated. For example, backticks are evaluated inside of
double quotes, but not single quotes.

\ quotes the next character, just as in shells such as bash and zsh.
For example, if want to put quotes (""") inside of a
string, you can use "\" to force the next character
to be a literal instead of interpreted character.

"\\" means to insert a literal "\" into the
line. "\n" and "\r" have their usual
C meanings of linefeed and carriage-return, respectively.

A "\" at the end of a line can be used to split commands over
multiple lines, provided that the split points don't appear in the
middle of command names.

It is also possible to substitute the output of a Unix command in an
initialization file. This is accomplished by enclosing the command
in backticks (`command`).

UNIX environment variables can be accessed like the way it is done in shells
like sh and bash: Prepend the name of the variable by a dollar
("$") sign.

COMMANDS

alias defines an alias key for the given addresses. Each
address will be resolved into either an email address (user@example.com)
or a named email address (User Name <user@example.com>). The address may be specified in either format, or in the format "user@example.com (User
Name)".
unalias removes the alias corresponding to the given key or
all aliases when "*" is used as an argument. The optional
-group argument to alias causes the aliased address(es) to be
added to the named group.

group is used to directly add either addresses or regular expressions to
the specified group or groups. The different categories of arguments to the
group command can be in any order. The flags -rx and -addr
specify what the following strings (that cannot begin with a hyphen) should be
interpreted as: either a regular expression or an email address, respectively.
ungroup is used to remove addresses or regular expressions from the
specified group or groups. The syntax is similar to the group command,
however the special character * can be used to empty a group of all of
its contents.

These address groups can also be created implicitly by the alias, lists,
subscribe and alternates commands by specifying the optional -group
option.

Once defined, these address groups can be used in patterns to search for and limit the
display to messages matching a group.

alternates is used to inform mutt about alternate addresses
where you receive mail; you can use regular expressions to specify
alternate addresses. This affects mutt's idea about messages
from you, and messages addressed to you. unalternates removes
a regular expression from the list of known alternates. The -group flag
causes all of the subsequent regular expressions to be added to the named group.

alternative_order command permits you to define an order of preference which is
used by mutt to determine which part of a
multipart/alternative body to display.
A subtype of "*" matches any subtype, as does an empty
subtype. unalternative_order removes entries from the
ordered list or deletes the entire list when "*" is used
as an argument.

auto_viewtype[/subtype] [ ... ]
unauto_viewtype[/subtype] [ ... ]

This commands permits you to specify that mutt should automatically
convert the given MIME types to text/plain when displaying messages.
For this to work, there must be a
mailcap(5)
entry for the given MIME type with the
copiousoutput
flag set. A subtype of "*"
matches any subtype, as does an empty subtype.

mime_lookuptype[/subtype] [ ... ]
unmime_lookuptype[/subtype] [ ... ]

This command permits you to define a list of "data" MIME content
types for which mutt will try to determine the actual file type from
the file name, and not use a
mailcap(5)
entry given for the original MIME type. For instance, you may add
the application/octet-stream MIME type to this list.

bindmap1,map2,...keyfunction

This command binds the given key for the given map or maps
to the given function. Multiple maps may be specified by
separating them with commas (no whitespace is allowed).

For more information on keys and functions, please consult the Mutt
Manual. Note that the function name is to be specified without
angle brackets.

account-hook [!]regexpcommand

This hook is executed whenever you access a remote mailbox. Useful
to adjust configuration settings to different IMAP or POP servers.

charset-hookaliascharset

This command defines an alias for a character set. This is useful
to properly display messages which are tagged with a character set
name not known to mutt.

iconv-hookcharsetlocal-charset

This command defines a system-specific name for a character set.
This is useful when your system's
iconv(3)
implementation does not understand MIME character set names (such as
iso-8859-1),
but instead insists on being fed with implementation-specific
character set names (such as
8859-1).
In this specific case, you'd put this into your configuration file:

iconv-hook iso-8859-1 8859-1

message-hook [!]patterncommand

Before mutt displays (or formats for replying or forwarding) a
message which matches the given pattern (or, when it is
preceded by an exclamation mark, does not match the pattern),
the given command is executed. When multiple
message-hooks match, they are executed in the order in
which they occur in the configuration file.

folder-hook [!]regexpcommand

When mutt enters a folder which matches regexp (or, when
regexp is preceded by an exclamation mark, does not match
regexp), the given command is executed.

When several folder-hooks match a given mail folder, they are
executed in the order given in the configuration file.

macromapkeysequence [ description ]

This command binds the given sequence of keys to the given
key in the given map or maps. For valid maps, see bind. To
specify multiple maps, put only a comma between the maps.

Mutt maintains two lists of mailing list address patterns, a list of
subscribed mailing lists, and a list of known mailing lists. All
subscribed mailing lists are known. Patterns use regular expressions.

The lists command adds a mailing list address to the list of
known mailing lists. The unlists command removes a mailing
list from the lists of known and subscribed mailing lists. The
subscribe command adds a mailing list to the lists of known
and subscribed mailing lists. The unsubscribe command removes
it from the list of subscribed mailing lists. The -group flag
adds all of the subsequent regular expressions to the named group.

mbox-hook [!]patternmailbox

When mutt changes to a mail folder which matches pattern,
mailbox will be used as the "mbox" folder, i.e., read
messages will be moved to that folder when the mail folder is left.

The first matching mbox-hook applies.

mailboxesfilename [ filename ... ]
unmailboxes [ * | filename ... ]

The mailboxes specifies folders which can receive mail and which will
be checked for new messages. When changing folders, pressing space
will cycle through folders with new mail. The unmailboxes
command is used to remove a file name from the list of folders which
can receive mail. If "*" is specified as the file name, the
list is emptied.

my_hdrstringunmy_hdrfield

Using my_hdr, you can define headers which will be added to
the messages you compose. unmy_hdr will remove the given
user-defined headers.

hdr_orderheader1header2 [ ... ]

With this command, you can specify an order in which mutt will
attempt to present headers to you when viewing messages.

save-hook [!]patternfilename

When a message matches pattern, the default file name when
saving it will be the given filename.

fcc-hook [!]patternfilename

When an outgoing message matches pattern, the default file
name for storing a copy (fcc) will be the given filename.

fcc-save-hook [!]patternfilename

This command is an abbreviation for identical fcc-hook and
save-hook commands.

send-hook [!]patterncommand

When composing a message matching pattern, command is
executed. When multiple send-hooks match, they are executed
in the order in which they occur in the configuration file.

send2-hook [!]patterncommand

Whenever a message matching pattern is changed (either by
editing it or by using the compose menu), command
is executed. When multiple send2-hooks match, they are
executed in the order in which they occur in the configuration file.
Possible applications include setting the $sendmail variable when a
message's from header is changed.

send2-hook execution is not triggered by use of
enter-command from the compose menu.

reply-hook [!]patterncommand

When replying to a message matching pattern, command is
executed. When multiple reply-hooks match, they are executed
in the order in which they occur in the configuration file, but all
reply-hooks are matched and executed before send-hooks,
regardless of their order in the configuration file.

crypt-hookpatternkey-id

The crypt-hook command provides a method by which you can
specify the ID of the public key to be used when encrypting messages
to a certain recipient. The meaning of "key ID" is to be taken
broadly: This can be a different e-mail address, a numerical key ID,
or even just an arbitrary search string.

These commands provide a way to handle compressed folders. The given
regexp specifies which folders are taken as compressed (e.g.
"\\.gz$"). The commands tell Mutt how to uncompress a folder
(open-hook), compress a folder (close-hook) or append a
compressed mail to a compressed folder (append-hook). The
command string is the
printf(3)
like format string, and it should accept two parameters: %f,
which is replaced with the (compressed) folder name, and %t
which is replaced with the name of the temporary folder to which to
write.

These commands are used to set and manipulate configuration
variables.

Mutt knows four basic types of variables: boolean, number, string
and quadoption. Boolean variables can be set (true),
unset (false), or toggled. Number variables can be assigned
a positive integer value.

String variables consist of any number of printable characters.
Strings must be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or tabs.
You may also use the "C" escape sequences \n and
\t for newline and tab, respectively.

Quadoption variables are used to control whether or not to be
prompted for certain actions, or to specify a default action. A
value of yes will cause the action to be carried out automatically
as if you had answered yes to the question. Similarly, a value of
no will cause the the action to be carried out as if you had
answered "no." A value of ask-yes will cause a prompt
with a default answer of "yes" and ask-no will provide a
default answer of "no."

The reset command resets all given variables to the compile
time defaults. If you reset the special variable all, all
variables will reset to their compile time defaults.

sourcefilename

The given file will be evaluated as a configuration file.

spampatternformatnospampattern

These commands define spam-detection patterns from external spam
filters, so that mutt can sort, limit, and search on
``spam tags'' or ``spam attributes'', or display them
in the index. See the Mutt manual for details.

unhook [ * | hook-type ]

This command will remove all hooks of a given type, or all hooks
when "*" is used as an argument. hook-type
can be any of the -hook commands documented above.

PATTERNS

In various places with mutt, including some of the above mentioned
hook commands, you can specify patterns to match messages.

Constructing Patterns

A simple pattern consists of an operator of the form
"~character", possibly followed by a parameter
against which mutt is supposed to match the object specified by
this operator. For some characters, the ~ may be
replaced by another character to alter the behavior of the match.
These are described in the list of operators, below.

With some of these operators, the object to be matched consists of
several e-mail addresses. In these cases, the object is matched if
at least one of these e-mail addresses matches. You can prepend a
hat ("^") character to such a pattern to indicate that
all addresses must match in order to match the object.

You can construct complex patterns by combining simple patterns with
logical operators. Logical AND is specified by simply concatenating
two simple patterns, for instance "~C mutt-dev ~s bug".
Logical OR is specified by inserting a vertical bar ("|")
between two patterns, for instance "~C mutt-dev | ~s bug".
Additionally, you can negate a pattern by prepending a bang
("!") character. For logical grouping, use braces
("()"). Example: "!(~t mutt|~c mutt) ~f elkins".

Simple Patterns

Mutt understands the following simple patterns:

~A

all messages

~b EXPR

messages which contain EXPR in the message body.

=b STRING

messages which contain STRING in the message body. If IMAP is enabled, searches for STRING on the server, rather than downloading each message and searching it locally.

~B EXPR

messages which contain EXPR in the whole message.

~c EXPR

messages carbon-copied to EXPR

%c GROUP

messages carbon-copied to any member of GROUP

~C EXPR

messages either to: or cc: EXPR

%C GROUP

messages either to: or cc: to any member of GROUP

~d MIN-MAX

messages with "date-sent" in a Date range

~D

deleted messages

~e EXPR

messages which contain EXPR in the "Sender" field

%e GROUP

messages which contain a member of GROUP in the "Sender" field

~E

expired messages

~f EXPR

messages originating from EXPR

%f GROUP

messages originating from any member of GROUP

~F

flagged messages

~g

PGP signed messages

~G

PGP encrypted messages

~h EXPR

messages which contain EXPR in the message header

~H EXPR

messages with spam tags matching EXPR

~i EXPR

messages which match EXPR in the "Message-ID" field

~k

messages containing PGP key material

~l

messages addressed to a known mailing list (defined by either subscribe or list)

With the ~d, ~m, ~n, ~r, ~X, and ~z operators, you can also
specify ranges in the forms <MAX, >MIN,
MIN-, and -MAX.

With the ~z operator, the suffixes "K" and "M" are allowed to specify
kilobyte and megabyte respectively.

Matching dates

The ~d and ~r operators are used to match date ranges,
which are interpreted to be given in your local time zone.

A date is of the form
DD[/MM[/[cc]YY]], that is, a
two-digit date, optionally followed by a two-digit month, optionally
followed by a year specifications. Omitted fields default to the
current month and year.

Mutt understands either two or four digit year specifications. When
given a two-digit year, mutt will interpret values less than 70 as
lying in the 21st century (i.e., "38" means 2038 and not 1938,
and "00" is interpreted as 2000), and values
greater than or equal to 70 as lying in the 20th century.

Note that this behavior is Y2K compliant, but that mutt
does have a Y2.07K problem.

If a date range consists of a single date, the operator in question
will match that precise date. If the date range consists of a dash
("-"), followed by a date, this range will match any
date before and up to the date given. Similarly, a date followed by
a dash matches the date given and any later point of time. Two
dates, separated by a dash, match any date which lies in the given
range of time.

You can also modify any absolute date by giving an error range. An
error range consists of one of the characters
+,
-,
*,
followed by a positive number, followed by one of the unit
characters
y,
m,
w, or
d,
specifying a unit of years, months, weeks, or days.
+
increases the maximum date matched by the given interval of time,
-
decreases the minimum date matched by the given interval of time, and
*
increases the maximum date and decreases the minimum date matched by
the given interval of time. It is possible to give multiple error
margins, which cumulate. Example:
1/1/2001-1w+2w*3d

You can also specify offsets relative to the current date. An
offset is specified as one of the characters
<,
>,
=,
followed by a positive number, followed by one of the unit
characters
y,
m,
w, or
d.
>
matches dates which are older than the specified amount of time, an
offset which begins with the character
<
matches dates which are more recent than the specified amount of time,
and an offset which begins with the character
=
matches points of time which are precisely the given amount of time
ago.

CONFIGURATION VARIABLES

abort_nosubject

Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

If set to yes, when composing messages and no subject is given
at the subject prompt, composition will be aborted. If set to
no, composing messages with no subject given at the subject
prompt will never be aborted.

abort_unmodified

Type: quadoption
Default: yes

If set to yes, composition will automatically abort after
editing the message body if no changes are made to the file (this
check only happens after the first edit of the file). When set
to no, composition will never be aborted.

alias_file

Type: path
Default: "~/.muttrc"

The default file in which to save aliases created by the
<create-alias> function. Entries added to this file are
encoded in the character set specified by $config_charset if it
is set or the current character set otherwise.

Note: Mutt will not automatically source this file; you must
explicitly use the "source" command for it to be executed in case
this option points to a dedicated alias file.

The default for this option is the currently used muttrc file, or
"~/.muttrc" if no user muttrc was found.

alias_format

Type: string
Default: "%4n %2f %t %-10a %r"

Specifies the format of the data displayed for the "alias" menu. The
following printf(3)-style sequences are available:

%a

alias name

%f

flags - currently, a "d" for an alias marked for deletion

%n

index number

%r

address which alias expands to

%t

character which indicates if the alias is tagged for inclusion

allow_8bit

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Controls whether 8-bit data is converted to 7-bit using either Quoted-
Printable or Base64 encoding when sending mail.

allow_ansi

Type: boolean
Default: no

Controls whether ANSI color codes in messages (and color tags in
rich text messages) are to be interpreted.
Messages containing these codes are rare, but if this option is set,
their text will be colored accordingly. Note that this may override
your color choices, and even present a security problem, since a
message could include a line like

[-- PGP output follows ...

and give it the same color as your attachment color (see also
$crypt_timestamp).

arrow_cursor

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, an arrow ("->") will be used to indicate the current entry
in menus instead of highlighting the whole line. On slow network or modem
links this will make response faster because there is less that has to
be redrawn on the screen when moving to the next or previous entries
in the menu.

ascii_chars

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, Mutt will use plain ASCII characters when displaying thread
and attachment trees, instead of the default ACS characters.

askbcc

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, Mutt will prompt you for blind-carbon-copy (Bcc) recipients
before editing an outgoing message.

askcc

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, Mutt will prompt you for carbon-copy (Cc) recipients before
editing the body of an outgoing message.

assumed_charset

Type: string
Default: ""

This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding
schemes for messages without character encoding indication.
Header field values and message body content without character encoding
indication would be assumed that they are written in one of this list.
By default, all the header fields and message body without any charset
indication are assumed to be in "us-ascii".

For example, Japanese users might prefer this:

set assumed_charset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8"

However, only the first content is valid for the message body.

attach_charset

Type: string
Default: ""

This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding
schemes for text file attachments. Mutt uses this setting to guess
which encoding files being attached are encoded in to convert them to
a proper character set given in $send_charset.

If unset, the value of $charset will be used instead.
For example, the following configuration would work for Japanese
text handling:

set attach_charset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8"

Note: for Japanese users, "iso-2022-*" must be put at the head
of the value as shown above if included.

This variable describes the format of the "attachment" menu. The
following printf(3)-style sequences are understood:

%C

charset

%c

requires charset conversion ("n" or "c")

%D

deleted flag

%d

description

%e

MIME content-transfer-encoding

%f

filename

%I

disposition ("I" for inline, "A" for attachment)

%m

major MIME type

%M

MIME subtype

%n

attachment number

%Q

"Q", if MIME part qualifies for attachment counting

%s

size

%t

tagged flag

%T

graphic tree characters

%u

unlink (=to delete) flag

%X

number of qualifying MIME parts in this part and its children
(please see the "attachments" section for possible speed effects)

%>X

right justify the rest of the string and pad with character "X"

%|X

pad to the end of the line with character "X"

%*X

soft-fill with character "X" as pad

For an explanation of "soft-fill", see the $index_format documentation.

attach_sep

Type: string
Default: "\n"

The separator to add between attachments when operating (saving,
printing, piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments.

attach_split

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If this variable is unset, when operating (saving, printing, piping,
etc) on a list of tagged attachments, Mutt will concatenate the
attachments and will operate on them as a single attachment. The
$attach_sep separator is added after each attachment. When set,
Mutt will operate on the attachments one by one.

attribution

Type: string
Default: "On %d, %n wrote:"

This is the string that will precede a message which has been included
in a reply. For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences see
the section on $index_format.

auto_tag

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, functions in the index menu which affect a message
will be applied to all tagged messages (if there are any). When
unset, you must first use the <tag-prefix> function (bound to ";"
by default) to make the next function apply to all tagged messages.

autoedit

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set along with $edit_headers, Mutt will skip the initial
send-menu (prompting for subject and recipients) and allow you to
immediately begin editing the body of your
message. The send-menu may still be accessed once you have finished
editing the body of your message.

Note: when this option is set, you cannot use send-hooks that depend
on the recipients when composing a new (non-reply) message, as the initial
list of recipients is empty.

Also see $fast_reply.

beep

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When this variable is set, mutt will beep when an error occurs.

beep_new

Type: boolean
Default: no

When this variable is set, mutt will beep whenever it prints a message
notifying you of new mail. This is independent of the setting of the
$beep variable.

bounce

Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

Controls whether you will be asked to confirm bouncing messages.
If set to yes you don't get asked if you want to bounce a
message. Setting this variable to no is not generally useful,
and thus not recommended, because you are unable to bounce messages.

bounce_delivered

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When this variable is set, mutt will include Delivered-To headers when
bouncing messages. Postfix users may wish to unset this variable.

Note: On Debian systems, this option is unset by default in
/etc/Muttrc.

braille_friendly

Type: boolean
Default: no

When this variable is set, mutt will place the cursor at the beginning
of the current line in menus, even when the $arrow_cursor variable
is unset, making it easier for blind persons using Braille displays to
follow these menus. The option is unset by default because many
visual terminals don't permit making the cursor invisible.

certificate_file

Type: path
Default: "~/.mutt_certificates"

This variable specifies the file where the certificates you trust
are saved. When an unknown certificate is encountered, you are asked
if you accept it or not. If you accept it, the certificate can also
be saved in this file and further connections are automatically
accepted.

You can also manually add CA certificates in this file. Any server
certificate that is signed with one of these CA certificates is
also automatically accepted.

Example:

set certificate_file=~/.mutt/certificates

charset

Type: string
Default: ""

Character set your terminal uses to display and enter textual data.
It is also the fallback for $send_charset.

Upon startup Mutt tries to derive this value from environment variables
such as $LC_CTYPE or $LANG.

Note: It should only be set in case Mutt isn't able to determine the
character set used correctly.

check_mbox_size

Type: boolean
Default: no

When this variable is set, mutt will use file size attribute instead of
access time when checking for new mail in mbox and mmdf folders.

This variable is unset by default and should only be enabled when
new mail detection for these folder types is unreliable or doesn't work.

Note that enabling this variable should happen before any "mailboxes"
directives occur in configuration files regarding mbox or mmdf folders
because mutt needs to determine the initial new mail status of such a
mailbox by performing a fast mailbox scan when it is defined.
Afterwards the new mail status is tracked by file size changes.

check_new

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Note: this option only affects maildir and MH style
mailboxes.

When set, Mutt will check for new mail delivered while the
mailbox is open. Especially with MH mailboxes, this operation can
take quite some time since it involves scanning the directory and
checking each file to see if it has already been looked at. If
this variable is unset, no check for new mail is performed
while the mailbox is open.

collapse_unread

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When unset, Mutt will not collapse a thread if it contains any
unread messages.

Controls the format of the status line displayed in the "compose"
menu. This string is similar to $status_format, but has its own
set of printf(3)-like sequences:

%a

total number of attachments

%h

local hostname

%l

approximate size (in bytes) of the current message

%v

Mutt version string

See the text describing the $status_format option for more
information on how to set $compose_format.

config_charset

Type: string
Default: ""

When defined, Mutt will recode commands in rc files from this
encoding to the current character set as specified by $charset
and aliases written to $alias_file from the current character set.

Please note that if setting $charset it must be done before
setting $config_charset.

Recoding should be avoided as it may render unconvertable
characters as question marks which can lead to undesired
side effects (for example in regular expressions).

confirmappend

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when appending messages to
an existing mailbox.

confirmcreate

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when saving messages to a
mailbox which does not yet exist before creating it.

connect_timeout

Type: number
Default: 30

Causes Mutt to timeout a network connection (for IMAP, POP or SMTP) after this
many seconds if the connection is not able to be established. A negative
value causes Mutt to wait indefinitely for the connection attempt to succeed.

content_type

Type: string
Default: "text/plain"

Sets the default Content-Type for the body of newly composed messages.

copy

Type: quadoption
Default: yes

This variable controls whether or not copies of your outgoing messages
will be saved for later references. Also see $record,
$save_name, $force_name and "fcc-hook".

crypt_autoencrypt

Type: boolean
Default: no

Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to PGP
encrypt outgoing messages. This is probably only useful in
connection to the "send-hook" command. It can be overridden
by use of the pgp menu, when encryption is not required or
signing is requested as well. If $smime_is_default is set,
then OpenSSL is used instead to create S/MIME messages and
settings can be overridden by use of the smime menu instead.
(Crypto only)

crypt_autopgp

Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable controls whether or not mutt may automatically enable
PGP encryption/signing for messages. See also $crypt_autoencrypt,
$crypt_replyencrypt,
$crypt_autosign, $crypt_replysign and $smime_is_default.

crypt_autosign

Type: boolean
Default: no

Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to
cryptographically sign outgoing messages. This can be overridden
by use of the pgp menu, when signing is not required or
encryption is requested as well. If $smime_is_default is set,
then OpenSSL is used instead to create S/MIME messages and settings can
be overridden by use of the smime menu instead of the pgp menu.
(Crypto only)

crypt_autosmime

Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable controls whether or not mutt may automatically enable
S/MIME encryption/signing for messages. See also $crypt_autoencrypt,
$crypt_replyencrypt,
$crypt_autosign, $crypt_replysign and $smime_is_default.

crypt_replyencrypt

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL encrypt replies to messages which are
encrypted.
(Crypto only)

crypt_replysign

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages which are
signed.

Note: this does not work on messages that are encrypted
and signed!
(Crypto only)

crypt_replysignencrypted

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages
which are encrypted. This makes sense in combination with
$crypt_replyencrypt, because it allows you to sign all
messages which are automatically encrypted. This works around
the problem noted in $crypt_replysign, that mutt is not able
to find out whether an encrypted message is also signed.
(Crypto only)

crypt_timestamp

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, mutt will include a time stamp in the lines surrounding
PGP or S/MIME output, so spoofing such lines is more difficult.
If you are using colors to mark these lines, and rely on these,
you may unset this setting.
(Crypto only)

crypt_use_gpgme

Type: boolean
Default: no

This variable controls the use of the GPGME-enabled crypto backends.
If it is set and Mutt was built with gpgme support, the gpgme code for
S/MIME and PGP will be used instead of the classic code. Note that
you need to set this option in .muttrc; it won't have any effect when
used interactively.

If "yes", always attempt to verify PGP or S/MIME signatures.
If "ask-*", ask whether or not to verify the signature.
If "no", never attempt to verify cryptographic signatures.
(Crypto only)

date_format

Type: string
Default: "!%a, %b %d, %Y at %I:%M:%S%p %Z"

This variable controls the format of the date printed by the "%d"
sequence in $index_format. This is passed to the strftime(3)
function to process the date, see the man page for the proper syntax.

Unless the first character in the string is a bang ("!"), the month
and week day names are expanded according to the locale specified in
the variable $locale. If the first character in the string is a
bang, the bang is discarded, and the month and week day names in the
rest of the string are expanded in the C locale (that is in US
English).

default_hook

Type: string
Default: "~f %s !~P | (~P ~C %s)"

This variable controls how "message-hook", "reply-hook", "send-hook",
"send2-hook", "save-hook", and "fcc-hook" will
be interpreted if they are specified with only a simple regexp,
instead of a matching pattern. The hooks are expanded when they are
declared, so a hook will be interpreted according to the value of this
variable at the time the hook is declared.

The default value matches
if the message is either from a user matching the regular expression
given, or if it is from you (if the from address matches
"alternates") and is to or cc'ed to a user matching the given
regular expression.

delete

Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

Controls whether or not messages are really deleted when closing or
synchronizing a mailbox. If set to yes, messages marked for
deleting will automatically be purged without prompting. If set to
no, messages marked for deletion will be kept in the mailbox.

delete_untag

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If this option is set, mutt will untag messages when marking them
for deletion. This applies when you either explicitly delete a message,
or when you save it to another folder.

digest_collapse

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If this option is set, mutt's received-attachments menu will not show the subparts of
individual messages in a multipart/digest. To see these subparts, press "v" on that menu.

display_filter

Type: path
Default: ""

When set, specifies a command used to filter messages. When a message
is viewed it is passed as standard input to $display_filter, and the
filtered message is read from the standard output.

This variable sets the request for when notification is returned. The
string consists of a comma separated list (no spaces!) of one or more
of the following: never, to never request notification,
failure, to request notification on transmission failure,
delay, to be notified of message delays, success, to be
notified of successful transmission.

Example:

set dsn_notify="failure,delay"

Note: when using $sendmail for delivery, you should not enable
this unless you are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a MTA
providing a sendmail(1)-compatible interface supporting the -N option
for DSN. For SMTP delivery, DSN support is auto-detected so that it
depends on the server whether DSN will be used or not.

dsn_return

Type: string
Default: ""

This variable controls how much of your message is returned in DSN
messages. It may be set to either hdrs to return just the
message header, or full to return the full message.

Example:

set dsn_return=hdrs

Note: when using $sendmail for delivery, you should not enable
this unless you are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a MTA
providing a sendmail(1)-compatible interface supporting the -R option
for DSN. For SMTP delivery, DSN support is auto-detected so that it
depends on the server whether DSN will be used or not.

duplicate_threads

Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable controls whether mutt, when $sort is set to threads, threads
messages with the same Message-Id together. If it is set, it will indicate
that it thinks they are duplicates of each other with an equals sign
in the thread tree.

edit_headers

Type: boolean
Default: no

This option allows you to edit the header of your outgoing messages
along with the body of your message.

Note that changes made to the References: and Date: headers are
ignored for interoperability reasons.

editor

Type: path
Default: ""

This variable specifies which editor is used by mutt.
It defaults to the value of the $VISUAL, or $EDITOR, environment
variable, or to the string "/usr/bin/editor" if neither of those are set.

The $editor string may contain a %s escape, which will be replaced by the name
of the file to be edited. If the %s escape does not appear in $editor, a
space and the name to be edited are appended.

The resulting string is then executed by running

sh -c 'string'

where string is the expansion of $editor described above.

encode_from

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, mutt will quoted-printable encode messages when
they contain the string "From " (note the trailing space) in the beginning of a line.
This is useful to avoid the tampering certain mail delivery and transport
agents tend to do with messages (in order to prevent tools from
misinterpreting the line as a mbox message separator).

envelope_from_address

Type: e-mail address
Default: ""

Manually sets the envelope sender for outgoing messages.
This value is ignored if $use_envelope_from is unset.

escape

Type: string
Default: "~"

Escape character to use for functions in the built-in editor.

fast_reply

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, the initial prompt for recipients and subject are skipped
when replying to messages, and the initial prompt for subject is
skipped when forwarding messages.

Note: this variable has no effect when the $autoedit
variable is set.

fcc_attach

Type: quadoption
Default: yes

This variable controls whether or not attachments on outgoing messages
are saved along with the main body of your message.

fcc_clear

Type: boolean
Default: no

When this variable is set, FCCs will be stored unencrypted and
unsigned, even when the actual message is encrypted and/or
signed.
(PGP only)

folder

Type: path
Default: "~/Mail"

Specifies the default location of your mailboxes. A "+" or "=" at the
beginning of a pathname will be expanded to the value of this
variable. Note that if you change this variable (from the default)
value you need to make sure that the assignment occurs before
you use "+" or "=" for any other variables since expansion takes place
when handling the "mailboxes" command.

folder_format

Type: string
Default: "%2C %t %N %F %2l %-8.8u %-8.8g %8s %d %f"

This variable allows you to customize the file browser display to your
personal taste. This string is similar to $index_format, but has
its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:

%C

current file number

%d

date/time folder was last modified

%D

date/time folder was last modified using $date_format.

%f

filename ("/" is appended to directory names,
"@" to symbolic links and "*" to executable
files)

%F

file permissions

%g

group name (or numeric gid, if missing)

%l

number of hard links

%N

N if folder has new mail, blank otherwise

%s

size in bytes

%t

"*" if the file is tagged, blank otherwise

%u

owner name (or numeric uid, if missing)

%>X

right justify the rest of the string and pad with character "X"

%|X

pad to the end of the line with character "X"

%*X

soft-fill with character "X" as pad

For an explanation of "soft-fill", see the $index_format documentation.

followup_to

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Controls whether or not the "Mail-Followup-To:" header field is
generated when sending mail. When set, Mutt will generate this
field when you are replying to a known mailing list, specified with
the "subscribe" or "lists" commands.

This field has two purposes. First, preventing you from
receiving duplicate copies of replies to messages which you send
to mailing lists, and second, ensuring that you do get a reply
separately for any messages sent to known lists to which you are
not subscribed.

The header will contain only the list's address
for subscribed lists, and both the list address and your own
email address for unsubscribed lists. Without this header, a
group reply to your message sent to a subscribed list will be
sent to both the list and your address, resulting in two copies
of the same email for you.

force_name

Type: boolean
Default: no

This variable is similar to $save_name, except that Mutt will
store a copy of your outgoing message by the username of the address
you are sending to even if that mailbox does not exist.

Also see the $record variable.

forward_decode

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain when
forwarding a message. The message header is also RFC2047 decoded.
This variable is only used, if $mime_forward is unset,
otherwise $mime_forward_decode is used instead.

forward_decrypt

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Controls the handling of encrypted messages when forwarding a message.
When set, the outer layer of encryption is stripped off. This
variable is only used if $mime_forward is set and
$mime_forward_decode is unset.
(PGP only)

forward_edit

Type: quadoption
Default: yes

This quadoption controls whether or not the user is automatically
placed in the editor when forwarding messages. For those who always want
to forward with no modification, use a setting of "no".

forward_format

Type: string
Default: "[%a: %s]"

This variable controls the default subject when forwarding a message.
It uses the same format sequences as the $index_format variable.

forward_quote

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, forwarded messages included in the main body of the
message (when $mime_forward is unset) will be quoted using
$indent_string.

from

Type: e-mail address
Default: ""

When set, this variable contains a default from address. It
can be overridden using "my_hdr" (including from a "send-hook") and
$reverse_name. This variable is ignored if $use_from is unset.

This setting defaults to the contents of the environment variable $EMAIL.

gecos_mask

Type: regular expression
Default: "^[^,]*"

A regular expression used by mutt to parse the GECOS field of a password
entry when expanding the alias. The default value
will return the string up to the first "," encountered.
If the GECOS field contains a string like "lastname, firstname" then you
should set it to ".*".

This can be useful if you see the following behavior: you address an e-mail
to user ID "stevef" whose full name is "Steve Franklin". If mutt expands
"stevef" to ""Franklin" stevef@foo.bar" then you should set the $gecos_mask to
a regular expression that will match the whole name so mutt will expand
"Franklin" to "Franklin, Steve".

hdrs

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When unset, the header fields normally added by the "my_hdr"
command are not created. This variable must be unset before
composing a new message or replying in order to take effect. If set,
the user defined header fields are added to every new message.

header

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, this variable causes Mutt to include the header
of the message you are replying to into the edit buffer.
The $weed setting applies.

header_cache

Type: path
Default: ""

This variable points to the header cache database.
If pointing to a directory Mutt will contain a header cache
database file per folder, if pointing to a file that file will
be a single global header cache. By default it is unset so no header
caching will be used.

When mutt is compiled with qdbm or tokyocabinet as header cache backend,
this option determines whether the database will be compressed.
Compression results in database files roughly being one fifth
of the usual diskspace, but the decompression can result in a
slower opening of cached folder(s) which in general is still
much faster than opening non header cached folders.

help

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, help lines describing the bindings for the major functions
provided by each menu are displayed on the first line of the screen.

Note: The binding will not be displayed correctly if the
function is bound to a sequence rather than a single keystroke. Also,
the help line may not be updated if a binding is changed while Mutt is
running. Since this variable is primarily aimed at new users, neither
of these should present a major problem.

hidden_host

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, mutt will skip the host name part of $hostname variable
when adding the domain part to addresses. This variable does not
affect the generation of Message-IDs, and it will not lead to the
cut-off of first-level domains.

hide_limited

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, mutt will not show the presence of messages that are hidden
by limiting, in the thread tree.

hide_missing

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing messages in the
thread tree.

hide_thread_subject

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, mutt will not show the subject of messages in the thread
tree that have the same subject as their parent or closest previously
displayed sibling.

hide_top_limited

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, mutt will not show the presence of messages that are hidden
by limiting, at the top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when
$hide_limited is set, this option will have no effect.

hide_top_missing

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing messages at the
top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when $hide_missing is
set, this option will have no effect.

history

Type: number
Default: 10

This variable controls the size (in number of strings remembered) of
the string history buffer per category. The buffer is cleared each time the
variable is set.

history_file

Type: path
Default: "~/.mutthistory"

The file in which Mutt will save its history.

honor_disposition

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, Mutt will not display attachments with a
disposition of "attachment" inline even if it could
render the part to plain text. These MIME parts can only
be viewed from the attachment menu.

If unset, Mutt will render all MIME parts it can
properly transform to plain text.

honor_followup_to

Type: quadoption
Default: yes

This variable controls whether or not a Mail-Followup-To header is
honored when group-replying to a message.

hostname

Type: string
Default: ""

Specifies the fully-qualified hostname of the system mutt is running on
containing the host's name and the DNS domain it belongs to. It is used
as the domain part (after "@") for local email addresses as well as
Message-Id headers.

Its value is determined at startup as follows: If the node's name
as returned by the uname(3) function contains the hostname and the
domain, these are used to construct $hostname. If there is no
domain part returned, Mutt will look for a "domain" or "search"
line in /etc/resolv.conf to determine the domain. Optionally, Mutt
can be compiled with a fixed domain name in which case a detected
one is not used.

Also see $use_domain and $hidden_host.

Note: On Debian systems, the default for this variable is obtained
from /etc/mailname when Mutt starts.

ignore_linear_white_space

Type: boolean
Default: no

This option replaces linear-white-space between encoded-word
and text to a single space to prevent the display of MIME-encoded
"Subject:" field from being divided into multiple lines.

ignore_list_reply_to

Type: boolean
Default: no

Affects the behavior of the <reply> function when replying to
messages from mailing lists (as defined by the "subscribe" or
"lists" commands). When set, if the "Reply-To:" field is
set to the same value as the "To:" field, Mutt assumes that the
"Reply-To:" field was set by the mailing list to automate responses
to the list, and will ignore this field. To direct a response to the
mailing list when this option is set, use the <list-reply>
function; <group-reply> will reply to both the sender and the
list.

imap_authenticators

Type: string
Default: ""

This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt may
attempt to use to log in to an IMAP server, in the order mutt should
try them. Authentication methods are either "login" or the right
side of an IMAP "AUTH=xxx" capability string, e.g. "digest-md5", "gssapi"
or "cram-md5". This option is case-insensitive. If it's
unset (the default) mutt will try all available methods,
in order from most-secure to least-secure.

Example:

set imap_authenticators="gssapi:cram-md5:login"

Note: Mutt will only fall back to other authentication methods if
the previous methods are unavailable. If a method is available but
authentication fails, mutt will not connect to the IMAP server.

imap_check_subscribed

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, mutt will fetch the set of subscribed folders from
your server on connection, and add them to the set of mailboxes
it polls for new mail just as if you had issued individual "mailboxes"
commands.

imap_delim_chars

Type: string
Default: "/."

This contains the list of characters which you would like to treat
as folder separators for displaying IMAP paths. In particular it
helps in using the "=" shortcut for your folder variable.

Note: This is a space separated list, items should be uppercase
and not contain the colon, e.g. "X-BOGOSITY X-SPAM-STATUS" for the
"X-Bogosity:" and "X-Spam-Status:" header fields.

imap_idle

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, mutt will attempt to use the IMAP IDLE extension
to check for new mail in the current mailbox. Some servers
(dovecot was the inspiration for this option) react badly
to mutt's implementation. If your connection seems to freeze
up periodically, try unsetting this.

imap_keepalive

Type: number
Default: 300

This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds that mutt
will wait before polling open IMAP connections, to prevent the server
from closing them before mutt has finished with them. The default is
well within the RFC-specified minimum amount of time (30 minutes) before
a server is allowed to do this, but in practice the RFC does get
violated every now and then. Reduce this number if you find yourself
getting disconnected from your IMAP server due to inactivity.

imap_list_subscribed

Type: boolean
Default: no

This variable configures whether IMAP folder browsing will look for
only subscribed folders or all folders. This can be toggled in the
IMAP browser with the <toggle-subscribed> function.

imap_login

Type: string
Default: ""

Your login name on the IMAP server.

This variable defaults to the value of $imap_user.

imap_pass

Type: string
Default: ""

Specifies the password for your IMAP account. If unset, Mutt will
prompt you for your password when you invoke the <imap-fetch-mail> function
or try to open an IMAP folder.

Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc even
if you are the only one who can read the file.

imap_passive

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, mutt will not open new IMAP connections to check for new
mail. Mutt will only check for new mail over existing IMAP
connections. This is useful if you don't want to be prompted to
user/password pairs on mutt invocation, or if opening the connection
is slow.

imap_peek

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, mutt will avoid implicitly marking your mail as read whenever
you fetch a message from the server. This is generally a good thing,
but can make closing an IMAP folder somewhat slower. This option
exists to appease speed freaks.

imap_pipeline_depth

Type: number
Default: 15

Controls the number of IMAP commands that may be queued up before they
are sent to the server. A deeper pipeline reduces the amount of time
mutt must wait for the server, and can make IMAP servers feel much
more responsive. But not all servers correctly handle pipelined commands,
so if you have problems you might want to try setting this variable to 0.

Note: Changes to this variable have no effect on open connections.

imap_servernoise

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, mutt will display warning messages from the IMAP
server as error messages. Since these messages are often
harmless, or generated due to configuration problems on the
server which are out of the users' hands, you may wish to suppress
them at some point.

imap_user

Type: string
Default: ""

The name of the user whose mail you intend to access on the IMAP
server.

This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.

implicit_autoview

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set to "yes", mutt will look for a mailcap entry with the
"copiousoutput" flag set for every MIME attachment it doesn't have
an internal viewer defined for. If such an entry is found, mutt will
use the viewer defined in that entry to convert the body part to text
form. MIME attachments with 'text' types, with the only exception
of text/html, are excluded: they will be shown as they are unless auto_view
is specified.

include

Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

Controls whether or not a copy of the message(s) you are replying to
is included in your reply.

include_onlyfirst

Type: boolean
Default: no

Controls whether or not Mutt includes only the first attachment
of the message you are replying.

indent_string

Type: string
Default: "> "

Specifies the string to prepend to each line of text quoted in a
message to which you are replying. You are strongly encouraged not to
change this value, as it tends to agitate the more fanatical netizens.

The value of this option is ignored if $text_flowed is set, too because
the quoting mechanism is strictly defined for format=flowed.

This option is a format string, please see the description of
$index_format for supported printf(3)-style sequences.

index_format

Type: string
Default: "%4C %Z %{%b %d} %-15.15L (%?l?%4l&%4c?) %s"

This variable allows you to customize the message index display to
your personal taste.

"Format strings" are similar to the strings used in the C
function printf(3) to format output (see the man page for more details).
The following sequences are defined in Mutt:

%a

address of the author

%A

reply-to address (if present; otherwise: address of author)

%b

filename of the original message folder (think mailbox)

%B

the list to which the letter was sent, or else the folder name (%b).

%c

number of characters (bytes) in the message

%C

current message number

%d

date and time of the message in the format specified by
$date_format converted to sender's time zone

%D

date and time of the message in the format specified by
$date_format converted to the local time zone

%e

current message number in thread

%E

number of messages in current thread

%f

sender (address + real name), either From: or Return-Path:

%F

author name, or recipient name if the message is from you

%H

spam attribute(s) of this message

%i

message-id of the current message

%l

number of lines in the message (does not work with maildir,
mh, and possibly IMAP folders)

%L

If an address in the "To:" or "Cc:" header field matches an address
defined by the users "subscribe" command, this displays
"To <list-name>", otherwise the same as %F.

%m

total number of message in the mailbox

%M

number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed.

%N

message score

%n

author's real name (or address if missing)

%O

original save folder where mutt would formerly have
stashed the message: list name or recipient name
if not sent to a list

%P

progress indicator for the built-in pager (how much of the file has been displayed)

%s

subject of the message

%S

status of the message ("N"/"D"/"d"/"!"/"r"/*)

%t

"To:" field (recipients)

%T

the appropriate character from the $to_chars string

%u

user (login) name of the author

%v

first name of the author, or the recipient if the message is from you

%X

number of attachments
(please see the "attachments" section for possible speed effects)

%y

"X-Label:" field, if present

%Y

"X-Label:" field, if present, and (1) not at part of a thread tree,
(2) at the top of a thread, or (3) "X-Label:" is different from
preceding message's "X-Label:".

%Z

message status flags

%{fmt}

the date and time of the message is converted to sender's
time zone, and "fmt" is expanded by the library function
strftime(3); a leading bang disables locales

%[fmt]

the date and time of the message is converted to the local
time zone, and "fmt" is expanded by the library function
strftime(3); a leading bang disables locales

%(fmt)

the local date and time when the message was received.
"fmt" is expanded by the library function strftime(3);
a leading bang disables locales

%<fmt>

the current local time. "fmt" is expanded by the library
function strftime(3); a leading bang disables locales.

%>X

right justify the rest of the string and pad with character "X"

%|X

pad to the end of the line with character "X"

%*X

soft-fill with character "X" as pad

"Soft-fill" deserves some explanation: Normal right-justification
will print everything to the left of the "%>", displaying padding and
whatever lies to the right only if there's room. By contrast,
soft-fill gives priority to the right-hand side, guaranteeing space
to display it and showing padding only if there's still room. If
necessary, soft-fill will eat text leftwards to make room for
rightward text.

Note that these expandos are supported in
"save-hook", "fcc-hook" and "fcc-save-hook", too.

ispell

Type: path
Default: "ispell"

How to invoke ispell (GNU's spell-checking software).

keep_flagged

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, read messages marked as flagged will not be moved
from your spool mailbox to your $mbox mailbox, or as a result of
a "mbox-hook" command.

locale

Type: string
Default: "C"

The locale used by strftime(3) to format dates. Legal values are
the strings your system accepts for the locale environment variable $LC_TIME.

mail_check

Type: number
Default: 5

This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should look for
new mail. Also see the $timeout variable.

mail_check_recent

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, Mutt will only notify you about new mail that has been received
since the last time you opened the mailbox. When unset, Mutt will notify you
if any new mail exists in the mailbox, regardless of whether you have visited it
recently.

When $mark_old is set, Mutt does not consider the mailbox to contain new
mail if only old messages exist.

mailcap_path

Type: string
Default: ""

This variable specifies which files to consult when attempting to
display MIME bodies not directly supported by Mutt.

mailcap_sanitize

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, mutt will restrict possible characters in mailcap % expandos
to a well-defined set of safe characters. This is the safe setting,
but we are not sure it doesn't break some more advanced MIME stuff.

DON'T CHANGE THIS SETTING UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY SURE WHAT YOU ARE
DOING!

maildir_header_cache_verify

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Check for Maildir unaware programs other than mutt having modified maildir
files when the header cache is in use. This incurs one stat(2) per
message every time the folder is opened (which can be very slow for NFS
folders).

maildir_trash

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, messages marked as deleted will be saved with the maildir
trashed flag instead of unlinked. Note: this only applies
to maildir-style mailboxes. Setting it will have no effect on other
mailbox types.

mark_old

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Controls whether or not mutt marks newunread
messages as old if you exit a mailbox without reading them.
With this option set, the next time you start mutt, the messages
will show up with an "O" next to them in the index menu,
indicating that they are old.

markers

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Controls the display of wrapped lines in the internal pager. If set, a
"+" marker is displayed at the beginning of wrapped lines.

Also see the $smart_wrap variable.

mask

Type: regular expression
Default: "!^\.[^.]"

A regular expression used in the file browser, optionally preceded by
the not operator "!". Only files whose names match this mask
will be shown. The match is always case-sensitive.

mbox

Type: path
Default: "~/mbox"

This specifies the folder into which read mail in your $spoolfile
folder will be appended.

Also see the $move variable.

mbox_type

Type: folder magic
Default: mbox

The default mailbox type used when creating new folders. May be any of
"mbox", "MMDF", "MH" and "Maildir". This is overridden by the
-m command-line option.

menu_context

Type: number
Default: 0

This variable controls the number of lines of context that are given
when scrolling through menus. (Similar to $pager_context.)

menu_move_off

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When unset, the bottom entry of menus will never scroll up past
the bottom of the screen, unless there are less entries than lines.
When set, the bottom entry may move off the bottom.

menu_scroll

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, menus will be scrolled up or down one line when you
attempt to move across a screen boundary. If unset, the screen
is cleared and the next or previous page of the menu is displayed
(useful for slow links to avoid many redraws).

message_cache_clean

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, mutt will clean out obsolete entries from the message cache when
the mailbox is synchronized. You probably only want to set it
every once in a while, since it can be a little slow
(especially for large folders).

message_cachedir

Type: path
Default: ""

Set this to a directory and mutt will cache copies of messages from
your IMAP and POP servers here. You are free to remove entries at any
time.

When setting this variable to a directory, mutt needs to fetch every
remote message only once and can perform regular expression searches
as fast as for local folders.

Also see the $message_cache_clean variable.

message_format

Type: string
Default: "%s"

This is the string displayed in the "attachment" menu for
attachments of type message/rfc822. For a full listing of defined
printf(3)-like sequences see the section on $index_format.

meta_key

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, forces Mutt to interpret keystrokes with the high bit (bit 8)
set as if the user had pressed the Esc key and whatever key remains
after having the high bit removed. For example, if the key pressed
has an ASCII value of 0xf8, then this is treated as if the user had
pressed Esc then "x". This is because the result of removing the
high bit from 0xf8 is 0x78, which is the ASCII character
"x".

metoo

Type: boolean
Default: no

If unset, Mutt will remove your address (see the "alternates"
command) from the list of recipients when replying to a message.

mh_purge

Type: boolean
Default: no

When unset, mutt will mimic mh's behavior and rename deleted messages
to ,<old file name> in mh folders instead of really deleting
them. This leaves the message on disk but makes programs reading the folder
ignore it. If the variable is set, the message files will simply be
deleted.

This option is similar to $maildir_trash for Maildir folders.

mh_seq_flagged

Type: string
Default: "flagged"

The name of the MH sequence used for flagged messages.

mh_seq_replied

Type: string
Default: "replied"

The name of the MH sequence used to tag replied messages.

mh_seq_unseen

Type: string
Default: "unseen"

The name of the MH sequence used for unseen messages.

mime_forward

Type: quadoption
Default: no

When set, the message you are forwarding will be attached as a
separate message/rfc822 MIME part instead of included in the main body of the
message. This is useful for forwarding MIME messages so the receiver
can properly view the message as it was delivered to you. If you like
to switch between MIME and not MIME from mail to mail, set this
variable to "ask-no" or "ask-yes".

Also see $forward_decode and $mime_forward_decode.

mime_forward_decode

Type: boolean
Default: no

Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain when
forwarding a message while $mime_forward is set. Otherwise
$forward_decode is used instead.

mime_forward_rest

Type: quadoption
Default: yes

When forwarding multiple attachments of a MIME message from the attachment
menu, attachments which cannot be decoded in a reasonable manner will
be attached to the newly composed message if this option is set.

mix_entry_format

Type: string
Default: "%4n %c %-16s %a"

This variable describes the format of a remailer line on the mixmaster
chain selection screen. The following printf(3)-like sequences are
supported:

%n

The running number on the menu.

%c

Remailer capabilities.

%s

The remailer's short name.

%a

The remailer's e-mail address.

mixmaster

Type: path
Default: "mixmaster"

This variable contains the path to the Mixmaster binary on your
system. It is used with various sets of parameters to gather the
list of known remailers, and to finally send a message through the
mixmaster chain.

Note: On Debian systems, this option is set by default to
"mixmaster-filter" in /etc/Muttrc.

move

Type: quadoption
Default: no

Controls whether or not Mutt will move read messages
from your spool mailbox to your $mbox mailbox, or as a result of
a "mbox-hook" command.

narrow_tree

Type: boolean
Default: no

This variable, when set, makes the thread tree narrower, allowing
deeper threads to fit on the screen.

net_inc

Type: number
Default: 10

Operations that expect to transfer a large amount of data over the
network will update their progress every $net_inc kilobytes.
If set to 0, no progress messages will be displayed.

See also $read_inc, $write_inc and $net_inc.

pager

Type: path
Default: "builtin"

This variable specifies which pager you would like to use to view
messages. The value "builtin" means to use the built-in pager, otherwise this
variable should specify the pathname of the external pager you would
like to use.

Using an external pager may have some disadvantages: Additional
keystrokes are necessary because you can't call mutt functions
directly from the pager, and screen resizes cause lines longer than
the screen width to be badly formatted in the help menu.

pager_context

Type: number
Default: 0

This variable controls the number of lines of context that are given
when displaying the next or previous page in the internal pager. By
default, Mutt will display the line after the last one on the screen
at the top of the next page (0 lines of context).

This variable also specifies the amount of context given for search
results. If positive, this many lines will be given before a match,
if 0, the match will be top-aligned.

pager_format

Type: string
Default: "-%Z- %C/%m: %-20.20n %s%* -- (%P)"

This variable controls the format of the one-line message "status"
displayed before each message in either the internal or an external
pager. The valid sequences are listed in the $index_format
section.

pager_index_lines

Type: number
Default: 0

Determines the number of lines of a mini-index which is shown when in
the pager. The current message, unless near the top or bottom of the
folder, will be roughly one third of the way down this mini-index,
giving the reader the context of a few messages before and after the
message. This is useful, for example, to determine how many messages
remain to be read in the current thread. One of the lines is reserved
for the status bar from the index, so a setting of 6
will only show 5 lines of the actual index. A value of 0 results in
no index being shown. If the number of messages in the current folder
is less than $pager_index_lines, then the index will only use as
many lines as it needs.

pager_stop

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, the internal-pager will not move to the next message
when you are at the end of a message and invoke the <next-page>
function.

pgp_auto_decode

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, mutt will automatically attempt to decrypt traditional PGP
messages whenever the user performs an operation which ordinarily would
result in the contents of the message being operated on. For example,
if the user displays a pgp-traditional message which has not been manually
checked with the <check-traditional-pgp> function, mutt will automatically
check the message for traditional pgp.

pgp_autoinline

Type: boolean
Default: no

This option controls whether Mutt generates old-style inline
(traditional) PGP encrypted or signed messages under certain
circumstances. This can be overridden by use of the pgp menu,
when inline is not required.

Note that Mutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages
which consist of more than a single MIME part. Mutt can be
configured to ask before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline
(traditional) would not work.

Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.

Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is stronglydeprecated.
(PGP only)

pgp_check_exit

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, mutt will check the exit code of the PGP subprocess when
signing or encrypting. A non-zero exit code means that the
subprocess failed.
(PGP only)

pgp_clearsign_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This format is used to create an old-style "clearsigned" PGP
message. Note that the use of this format is stronglydeprecated.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(PGP only)

pgp_decode_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This format strings specifies a command which is used to decode
application/pgp attachments.

The PGP command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like sequences:

%p

Expands to PGPPASSFD=0 when a pass phrase is needed, to an empty
string otherwise. Note: This may be used with a %? construct.

%f

Expands to the name of a file containing a message.

%s

Expands to the name of a file containing the signature part
of a multipart/signed attachment when verifying it.

%a

The value of $pgp_sign_as.

%r

One or more key IDs.

For examples on how to configure these formats for the various versions
of PGP which are floating around, see the pgp and gpg sample configuration files in
the samples/ subdirectory which has been installed on your system
alongside the documentation.
(PGP only)

pgp_decrypt_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to decrypt a PGP encrypted message.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(PGP only)

pgp_encrypt_only_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to encrypt a body part without signing it.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(PGP only)

pgp_encrypt_sign_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to both sign and encrypt a body part.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(PGP only)

pgp_entry_format

Type: string
Default: "%4n %t%f %4l/0x%k %-4a %2c %u"

This variable allows you to customize the PGP key selection menu to
your personal taste. This string is similar to $index_format, but
has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(PGP only)

pgp_getkeys_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is invoked whenever Mutt needs to fetch the public key associated with
an email address. Of the sequences supported by $pgp_decode_command, %r is
the only printf(3)-like sequence used with this format. Note that
in this case, %r expands to the email address, not the public key ID (the key ID is
unknown, which is why Mutt is invoking this command).
(PGP only)

pgp_good_sign

Type: regular expression
Default: ""

If you assign a text to this variable, then a PGP signature is only
considered verified if the output from $pgp_verify_command contains
the text. Use this variable if the exit code from the command is 0
even for bad signatures.
(PGP only)

pgp_ignore_subkeys

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Setting this variable will cause Mutt to ignore OpenPGP subkeys. Instead,
the principal key will inherit the subkeys' capabilities. Unset this
if you want to play interesting key selection games.
(PGP only)

pgp_import_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to import a key from a message into
the user's public key ring.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(PGP only)

pgp_list_pubring_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to list the public key ring's contents. The
output format must be analogous to the one used by

gpg --list-keys --with-colons

This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which comes
with mutt.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(PGP only)

pgp_list_secring_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to list the secret key ring's contents. The
output format must be analogous to the one used by:

gpg --list-keys --with-colons

This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which comes
with mutt.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(PGP only)

This option controls whether Mutt will prompt you for
automatically sending a (signed/encrypted) message using
PGP/MIME when inline (traditional) fails (for any reason).

Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is stronglydeprecated.
(PGP only)

pgp_replyinline

Type: boolean
Default: no

Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to
create an inline (traditional) message when replying to a
message which is PGP encrypted/signed inline. This can be
overridden by use of the pgp menu, when inline is not
required. This option does not automatically detect if the
(replied-to) message is inline; instead it relies on Mutt
internals for previously checked/flagged messages.

Note that Mutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages
which consist of more than a single MIME part. Mutt can be
configured to ask before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline
(traditional) would not work.

Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.

Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is stronglydeprecated.
(PGP only)

pgp_retainable_sigs

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, signed and encrypted messages will consist of nested
multipart/signed and multipart/encrypted body parts.

This is useful for applications like encrypted and signed mailing
lists, where the outer layer (multipart/encrypted) can be easily
removed, while the inner multipart/signed part is retained.
(PGP only)

pgp_show_unusable

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, mutt will display non-usable keys on the PGP key selection
menu. This includes keys which have been revoked, have expired, or
have been marked as "disabled" by the user.
(PGP only)

pgp_sign_as

Type: string
Default: ""

If you have more than one key pair, this option allows you to specify
which of your private keys to use. It is recommended that you use the
keyid form to specify your key (e.g. 0x00112233).
(PGP only)

pgp_sign_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to create the detached PGP signature for a
multipart/signed PGP/MIME body part.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(PGP only)

pgp_sort_keys

Type: sort order
Default: address

Specifies how the entries in the pgp menu are sorted. The
following are legal values:

address

sort alphabetically by user id

keyid

sort alphabetically by key id

date

sort by key creation date

trust

sort by the trust of the key

If you prefer reverse order of the above values, prefix it with
"reverse-".
(PGP only)

pgp_strict_enc

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, Mutt will automatically encode PGP/MIME signed messages as
quoted-printable. Please note that unsetting this variable may
lead to problems with non-verifyable PGP signatures, so only change
this if you know what you are doing.
(PGP only)

pgp_timeout

Type: number
Default: 300

The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will expire if
not used.
(PGP only)

pgp_use_gpg_agent

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, mutt will use a possibly-running gpg-agent(1) process.
(PGP only)

pgp_verify_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to verify PGP signatures.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(PGP only)

pgp_verify_key_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to verify key information from the key selection
menu.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(PGP only)

pipe_decode

Type: boolean
Default: no

Used in connection with the <pipe-message> command. When unset,
Mutt will pipe the messages without any preprocessing. When set, Mutt
will weed headers and will attempt to decode the messages
first.

pipe_sep

Type: string
Default: "\n"

The separator to add between messages when piping a list of tagged
messages to an external Unix command.

pipe_split

Type: boolean
Default: no

Used in connection with the <pipe-message> function following
<tag-prefix>. If this variable is unset, when piping a list of
tagged messages Mutt will concatenate the messages and will pipe them
all concatenated. When set, Mutt will pipe the messages one by one.
In both cases the messages are piped in the current sorted order,
and the $pipe_sep separator is added after each message.

pop_auth_try_all

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, Mutt will try all available authentication methods.
When unset, Mutt will only fall back to other authentication
methods if the previous methods are unavailable. If a method is
available but authentication fails, Mutt will not connect to the POP server.

pop_authenticators

Type: string
Default: ""

This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt may
attempt to use to log in to an POP server, in the order mutt should
try them. Authentication methods are either "user", "apop" or any
SASL mechanism, e.g. "digest-md5", "gssapi" or "cram-md5".
This option is case-insensitive. If this option is unset
(the default) mutt will try all available methods, in order from
most-secure to least-secure.

Example:

set pop_authenticators="digest-md5:apop:user"

pop_checkinterval

Type: number
Default: 60

This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should look for
new mail in the currently selected mailbox if it is a POP mailbox.

pop_delete

Type: quadoption
Default: ask-no

If set, Mutt will delete successfully downloaded messages from the POP
server when using the <fetch-mail> function. When unset, Mutt will
download messages but also leave them on the POP server.

pop_host

Type: string
Default: ""

The name of your POP server for the <fetch-mail> function. You
can also specify an alternative port, username and password, i.e.:

[pop[s]://][username[:password]@]popserver[:port]

where "[...]" denotes an optional part.

pop_last

Type: boolean
Default: no

If this variable is set, mutt will try to use the "LAST" POP command
for retrieving only unread messages from the POP server when using
the <fetch-mail> function.

pop_pass

Type: string
Default: ""

Specifies the password for your POP account. If unset, Mutt will
prompt you for your password when you open a POP mailbox.

Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc
even if you are the only one who can read the file.

pop_reconnect

Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

Controls whether or not Mutt will try to reconnect to the POP server if
the connection is lost.

pop_user

Type: string
Default: ""

Your login name on the POP server.

This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.

post_indent_string

Type: string
Default: ""

Similar to the $attribution variable, Mutt will append this
string after the inclusion of a message which is being replied to.

postpone

Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

Controls whether or not messages are saved in the $postponed
mailbox when you elect not to send immediately.

Also see the $recall variable.

postponed

Type: path
Default: "~/postponed"

Mutt allows you to indefinitely "postpone sending a message" which
you are editing. When you choose to postpone a message, Mutt saves it
in the mailbox specified by this variable.

Also see the $postpone variable.

preconnect

Type: string
Default: ""

If set, a shell command to be executed if mutt fails to establish
a connection to the server. This is useful for setting up secure
connections, e.g. with ssh(1). If the command returns a nonzero
status, mutt gives up opening the server. Example:

Mailbox "foo" on "mailhost.net" can now be reached
as "{localhost:1234}foo".

Note: For this example to work, you must be able to log in to the
remote machine without having to enter a password.

print

Type: quadoption
Default: ask-no

Controls whether or not Mutt really prints messages.
This is set to "ask-no" by default, because some people
accidentally hit "p" often.

print_command

Type: path
Default: "lpr"

This specifies the command pipe that should be used to print messages.

print_decode

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Used in connection with the <print-message> command. If this
option is set, the message is decoded before it is passed to the
external command specified by $print_command. If this option
is unset, no processing will be applied to the message when
printing it. The latter setting may be useful if you are using
some advanced printer filter which is able to properly format
e-mail messages for printing.

print_split

Type: boolean
Default: no

Used in connection with the <print-message> command. If this option
is set, the command specified by $print_command is executed once for
each message which is to be printed. If this option is unset,
the command specified by $print_command is executed only once, and
all the messages are concatenated, with a form feed as the message
separator.

Those who use the enscript(1) program's mail-printing mode will
most likely want to set this option.

prompt_after

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If you use an external $pager, setting this variable will
cause Mutt to prompt you for a command when the pager exits rather
than returning to the index menu. If unset, Mutt will return to the
index menu when the external pager exits.

query_command

Type: path
Default: ""

This specifies the command Mutt will use to make external address
queries. The string may contain a "%s", which will be substituted
with the query string the user types. Mutt will add quotes around the
string substituted for "%s" automatically according to shell quoting
rules, so you should avoid adding your own. If no "%s" is found in
the string, Mutt will append the user's query to the end of the string.
See "query" for more information.

query_format

Type: string
Default: "%4c %t %-25.25a %-25.25n %?e?(%e)?"

This variable describes the format of the "query" menu. The
following printf(3)-style sequences are understood:

%a

destination address

%c

current entry number

%e

extra information *

%n

destination name

%t

"*" if current entry is tagged, a space otherwise

%>X

right justify the rest of the string and pad with "X"

%|X

pad to the end of the line with "X"

%*X

soft-fill with character "X" as pad

For an explanation of "soft-fill", see the $index_format documentation.

* = can be optionally printed if nonzero, see the $status_format documentation.

quit

Type: quadoption
Default: yes

This variable controls whether "quit" and "exit" actually quit
from mutt. If this option is set, they do quit, if it is unset, they
have no effect, and if it is set to ask-yes or ask-no, you are
prompted for confirmation when you try to quit.

quote_regexp

Type: regular expression
Default: "^([ \t]*[|>:}#])+"

A regular expression used in the internal pager to determine quoted
sections of text in the body of a message. Quoted text may be filtered
out using the <toggle-quoted> command, or colored according to the
"color quoted" family of directives.

Higher levels of quoting may be colored differently ("color quoted1",
"color quoted2", etc.). The quoting level is determined by removing
the last character from the matched text and recursively reapplying
the regular expression until it fails to produce a match.

Match detection may be overridden by the $smileys regular expression.

read_inc

Type: number
Default: 10

If set to a value greater than 0, Mutt will display which message it
is currently on when reading a mailbox or when performing search actions
such as search and limit. The message is printed after
this many messages have been read or searched (e.g., if set to 25, Mutt will
print a message when it is at message 25, and then again when it gets
to message 50). This variable is meant to indicate progress when
reading or searching large mailboxes which may take some time.
When set to 0, only a single message will appear before the reading
the mailbox.

Also see the $write_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables and the
"tuning" section of the manual for performance considerations.

read_only

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, all folders are opened in read-only mode.

realname

Type: string
Default: ""

This variable specifies what "real" or "personal" name should be used
when sending messages.

By default, this is the GECOS field from /etc/passwd. Note that this
variable will not be used when the user has set a real name
in the $from variable.

recall

Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

Controls whether or not Mutt recalls postponed messages
when composing a new message.

Setting this variable to is not generally useful, and thus not
recommended.

Also see $postponed variable.

record

Type: path
Default: "~/sent"

This specifies the file into which your outgoing messages should be
appended. (This is meant as the primary method for saving a copy of
your messages, but another way to do this is using the "my_hdr"
command to create a "Bcc:" field with your email address in it.)

The value of $record is overridden by the $force_name and
$save_name variables, and the "fcc-hook" command.

reflow_text

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, Mutt will reformat paragraphs in text/plain
parts marked format=flowed. If unset, Mutt will display paragraphs
unaltered from how they appear in the message body. See RFC3676 for
details on the format=flowed format.

Also see $reflow_wrap, and $wrap.

reflow_wrap

Type: number
Default: 78

This variable controls the maximum paragraph width when reformatting text/plain
parts when $reflow_text is set. When the value is 0, paragraphs will
be wrapped at the terminal's right margin. A positive value sets the
paragraph width relative to the left margin. A negative value set the
paragraph width relative to the right margin.

Also see $wrap.

reply_regexp

Type: regular expression
Default: "^(re([\[0-9\]+])*|aw):[ \t]*"

A regular expression used to recognize reply messages when threading
and replying. The default value corresponds to the English "Re:" and
the German "Aw:".

reply_self

Type: boolean
Default: no

If unset and you are replying to a message sent by you, Mutt will
assume that you want to reply to the recipients of that message rather
than to yourself.

Also see the "alternates" command.

reply_to

Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

If set, when replying to a message, Mutt will use the address listed
in the Reply-to: header as the recipient of the reply. If unset,
it will use the address in the From: header field instead. This
option is useful for reading a mailing list that sets the Reply-To:
header field to the list address and you want to send a private
message to the author of a message.

resolve

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, the cursor will be automatically advanced to the next
(possibly undeleted) message whenever a command that modifies the
current message is executed.

reverse_alias

Type: boolean
Default: no

This variable controls whether or not Mutt will display the "personal"
name from your aliases in the index menu if it finds an alias that
matches the message's sender. For example, if you have the following
alias:

It would be displayed in the index menu as "Joe User" instead of
"abd30425@somewhere.net." This is useful when the person's e-mail
address is not human friendly.

reverse_name

Type: boolean
Default: no

It may sometimes arrive that you receive mail to a certain machine,
move the messages to another machine, and reply to some the messages
from there. If this variable is set, the default From: line of
the reply messages is built using the address where you received the
messages you are replying to if that address matches your
"alternates". If the variable is unset, or the address that would be
used doesn't match your "alternates", the From: line will use
your address on the current machine.

Also see the "alternates" command.

reverse_realname

Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable fine-tunes the behavior of the $reverse_name feature.
When it is set, mutt will use the address from incoming messages as-is,
possibly including eventual real names. When it is unset, mutt will
override any such real names with the setting of the $realname variable.

rfc2047_parameters

Type: boolean
Default: no

When this variable is set, Mutt will decode RFC2047-encoded MIME
parameters. You want to set this variable when mutt suggests you
to save attachments to files named like:

=?iso-8859-1?Q?file=5F=E4=5F991116=2Ezip?=

When this variable is set interactively, the change won't be
active until you change folders.

Note that this use of RFC2047's encoding is explicitly
prohibited by the standard, but nevertheless encountered in the
wild.

Also note that setting this parameter will not have the effect
that mutt generates this kind of encoding. Instead, mutt will
unconditionally use the encoding specified in RFC2231.

save_address

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, mutt will take the sender's full address when choosing a
default folder for saving a mail. If $save_name or $force_name
is set too, the selection of the Fcc folder will be changed as well.

save_empty

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When unset, mailboxes which contain no saved messages will be removed
when closed (the exception is $spoolfile which is never removed).
If set, mailboxes are never removed.

Note: This only applies to mbox and MMDF folders, Mutt does not
delete MH and Maildir directories.

save_history

Type: number
Default: 0

This variable controls the size of the history (per category) saved in the
$history_file file.

save_name

Type: boolean
Default: no

This variable controls how copies of outgoing messages are saved.
When set, a check is made to see if a mailbox specified by the
recipient address exists (this is done by searching for a mailbox in
the $folder directory with the username part of the
recipient address). If the mailbox exists, the outgoing message will
be saved to that mailbox, otherwise the message is saved to the
$record mailbox.

Also see the $force_name variable.

score

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When this variable is unset, scoring is turned off. This can
be useful to selectively disable scoring for certain folders when the
$score_threshold_delete variable and related are used.

score_threshold_delete

Type: number
Default: -1

Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than the value
of this variable are automatically marked for deletion by mutt. Since
mutt scores are always greater than or equal to zero, the default setting
of this variable will never mark a message for deletion.

score_threshold_flag

Type: number
Default: 9999

Messages which have been assigned a score greater than or equal to this
variable's value are automatically marked "flagged".

score_threshold_read

Type: number
Default: -1

Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than the value
of this variable are automatically marked as read by mutt. Since
mutt scores are always greater than or equal to zero, the default setting
of this variable will never mark a message read.

search_context

Type: number
Default: 0

For the pager, this variable specifies the number of lines shown
before search results. By default, search results will be top-aligned.

send_charset

Type: string
Default: "us-ascii:iso-8859-1:utf-8"

A colon-delimited list of character sets for outgoing messages. Mutt will use the
first character set into which the text can be converted exactly.
If your $charset is not "iso-8859-1" and recipients may not
understand "UTF-8", it is advisable to include in the list an
appropriate widely used standard character set (such as
"iso-8859-2", "koi8-r" or "iso-2022-jp") either instead of or after
"iso-8859-1".

In case the text cannot be converted into one of these exactly,
mutt uses $charset as a fallback.

sendmail

Type: path
Default: "/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem -oi"

Specifies the program and arguments used to deliver mail sent by Mutt.
Mutt expects that the specified program interprets additional
arguments as recipient addresses.

sendmail_wait

Type: number
Default: 0

Specifies the number of seconds to wait for the $sendmail process
to finish before giving up and putting delivery in the background.

Mutt interprets the value of this variable as follows:

>0

number of seconds to wait for sendmail to finish before continuing

0

wait forever for sendmail to finish

<0

always put sendmail in the background without waiting

Note that if you specify a value other than 0, the output of the child
process will be put in a temporary file. If there is some error, you
will be informed as to where to find the output.

shell

Type: path
Default: ""

Command to use when spawning a subshell. By default, the user's login
shell from /etc/passwd is used.

sig_dashes

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, a line containing "-- " (note the trailing space) will be inserted before your
$signature. It is strongly recommended that you not unset
this variable unless your signature contains just your name. The
reason for this is because many software packages use "-- \n" to
detect your signature. For example, Mutt has the ability to highlight
the signature in a different color in the built-in pager.

sig_on_top

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, the signature will be included before any quoted or forwarded
text. It is strongly recommended that you do not set this variable
unless you really know what you are doing, and are prepared to take
some heat from netiquette guardians.

signature

Type: path
Default: "~/.signature"

Specifies the filename of your signature, which is appended to all
outgoing messages. If the filename ends with a pipe ("|"), it is
assumed that filename is a shell command and input should be read from
its standard output.

simple_search

Type: string
Default: "~f %s | ~s %s"

Specifies how Mutt should expand a simple search into a real search
pattern. A simple search is one that does not contain any of the "~" pattern
operators. See "patterns" for more information on search patterns.

For example, if you simply type "joe" at a search or limit prompt, Mutt
will automatically expand it to the value specified by this variable by
replacing "%s" with the supplied string.
For the default value, "joe" would be expanded to: "~f joe | ~s joe".

sleep_time

Type: number
Default: 1

Specifies time, in seconds, to pause while displaying certain informational
messages, while moving from folder to folder and after expunging
messages from the current folder. The default is to pause one second, so
a value of zero for this option suppresses the pause.

smart_wrap

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Controls the display of lines longer than the screen width in the
internal pager. If set, long lines are wrapped at a word boundary. If
unset, lines are simply wrapped at the screen edge. Also see the
$markers variable.

smileys

Type: regular expression
Default: "(>From )|(:[-^]?[][)(><}{|/DP])"

The pager uses this variable to catch some common false
positives of $quote_regexp, most notably smileys and not consider
a line quoted text if it also matches $smileys. This mostly
happens at the beginning of a line.

pgp_mime_signature_filename

Type: string
Default: "signature.asc"

This option sets the filename used for signature parts in PGP/MIME
signed messages.

pgp_mime_signature_description

Type: string
Default: "Digital signature"

This option sets the Content-Description used for signature parts in
PGP/MIME signed messages.

smime_ask_cert_label

Type: boolean
Default: yes

This flag controls whether you want to be asked to enter a label
for a certificate about to be added to the database or not. It is
set by default.
(S/MIME only)

smime_ca_location

Type: path
Default: ""

This variable contains the name of either a directory, or a file which
contains trusted certificates for use with OpenSSL.
(S/MIME only)

Note: On Debian systems, this defaults to the first existing file in
the following list: ~/.smime/ca-certificates.crt ~/.smime/ca-bundle.crt
/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt.

smime_certificates

Type: path
Default: ""

Since for S/MIME there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, mutt has to handle
storage and retrieval of keys by itself. This is very basic right
now, and keys and certificates are stored in two different
directories, both named as the hash-value retrieved from
OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains mailbox-address
keyid pairs, and which can be manually edited. This option points to
the location of the certificates.
(S/MIME only)

smime_decrypt_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This format string specifies a command which is used to decrypt
application/x-pkcs7-mime attachments.

The OpenSSL command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like sequences
similar to PGP's:

%f

Expands to the name of a file containing a message.

%s

Expands to the name of a file containing the signature part
of a multipart/signed attachment when verifying it.

%k

The key-pair specified with $smime_default_key

%c

One or more certificate IDs.

%a

The algorithm used for encryption.

%C

CA location: Depending on whether $smime_ca_location
points to a directory or file, this expands to
"-CApath $smime_ca_location" or "-CAfile $smime_ca_location".

For examples on how to configure these formats, see the smime.rc in
the samples/ subdirectory which has been installed on your system
alongside the documentation.
(S/MIME only)

smime_decrypt_use_default_key

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set (default) this tells mutt to use the default key for decryption. Otherwise,
if managing multiple certificate-key-pairs, mutt will try to use the mailbox-address
to determine the key to use. It will ask you to supply a key, if it can't find one.
(S/MIME only)

smime_default_key

Type: string
Default: ""

This is the default key-pair to use for signing. This must be set to the
keyid (the hash-value that OpenSSL generates) to work properly
(S/MIME only)

smime_encrypt_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to create encrypted S/MIME messages.

This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(S/MIME only)

smime_encrypt_with

Type: string
Default: ""

This sets the algorithm that should be used for encryption.
Valid choices are "des", "des3", "rc2-40", "rc2-64", "rc2-128".
If unset, "3des" (TripleDES) is used.
(S/MIME only)

smime_get_cert_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to extract X509 certificates from a PKCS7 structure.

This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(S/MIME only)

smime_get_cert_email_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to extract the mail address(es) used for storing
X509 certificates, and for verification purposes (to check whether the
certificate was issued for the sender's mailbox).

This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(S/MIME only)

smime_get_signer_cert_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to extract only the signers X509 certificate from a S/MIME
signature, so that the certificate's owner may get compared to the
email's "From:" field.

This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(S/MIME only)

smime_import_cert_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to import a certificate via smime_keys.

This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(S/MIME only)

smime_is_default

Type: boolean
Default: no

The default behavior of mutt is to use PGP on all auto-sign/encryption
operations. To override and to use OpenSSL instead this must be set.
However, this has no effect while replying, since mutt will automatically
select the same application that was used to sign/encrypt the original
message. (Note that this variable can be overridden by unsetting $crypt_autosmime.)
(S/MIME only)

smime_keys

Type: path
Default: ""

Since for S/MIME there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, mutt has to handle
storage and retrieval of keys/certs by itself. This is very basic right now,
and stores keys and certificates in two different directories, both
named as the hash-value retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file
which contains mailbox-address keyid pair, and which can be manually
edited. This option points to the location of the private keys.
(S/MIME only)

smime_pk7out_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to extract PKCS7 structures of S/MIME signatures,
in order to extract the public X509 certificate(s).

This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(S/MIME only)

smime_sign_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type
multipart/signed, which can be read by all mail clients.

This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(S/MIME only)

smime_sign_opaque_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type
application/x-pkcs7-signature, which can only be handled by mail
clients supporting the S/MIME extension.

This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(S/MIME only)

smime_timeout

Type: number
Default: 300

The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will expire if
not used.
(S/MIME only)

smime_verify_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type multipart/signed.

This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(S/MIME only)

smime_verify_opaque_command

Type: string
Default: ""

This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type
application/x-pkcs7-mime.

This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences.
(S/MIME only)

smtp_authenticators

Type: string
Default: ""

This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt may
attempt to use to log in to an SMTP server, in the order mutt should
try them. Authentication methods are any SASL mechanism, e.g.
"digest-md5", "gssapi" or "cram-md5".
This option is case-insensitive. If it is "unset"
(the default) mutt will try all available methods, in order from
most-secure to least-secure.

Example:

set smtp_authenticators="digest-md5:cram-md5"

Note: On Debian systems, this variable defaults to the example
mentioned. This file is managed by the "ca-certificates" package.

smtp_pass

Type: string
Default: ""

Specifies the password for your SMTP account. If unset, Mutt will
prompt you for your password when you first send mail via SMTP.
See $smtp_url to configure mutt to send mail via SMTP.

Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc even
if you are the only one who can read the file.

smtp_url

Type: string
Default: ""

Defines the SMTP smarthost where sent messages should relayed for
delivery. This should take the form of an SMTP URL, e.g.:

smtp[s]://[user[:pass]@]host[:port]

where "[...]" denotes an optional part.
Setting this variable overrides the value of the $sendmail
variable.

sort

Type: sort order
Default: date

Specifies how to sort messages in the "index" menu. Valid values
are:

- date or date-sent

- date-received

- from

- mailbox-order (unsorted)

- score

- size

- spam

- subject

- threads

- to

You may optionally use the "reverse-" prefix to specify reverse sorting
order (example: "set sort=reverse-date-sent").

Note: On Debian systems, this option is set by default to
"threads" in /etc/Muttrc.

sort_alias

Type: sort order
Default: alias

Specifies how the entries in the "alias" menu are sorted. The
following are legal values:

- address (sort alphabetically by email address)

- alias (sort alphabetically by alias name)

- unsorted (leave in order specified in .muttrc)

sort_aux

Type: sort order
Default: date

When sorting by threads, this variable controls how threads are sorted
in relation to other threads, and how the branches of the thread trees
are sorted. This can be set to any value that $sort can, except
"threads" (in that case, mutt will just use "date-sent"). You can also
specify the "last-" prefix in addition to the "reverse-" prefix, but "last-"
must come after "reverse-". The "last-" prefix causes messages to be
sorted against its siblings by which has the last descendant, using
the rest of $sort_aux as an ordering. For instance,

set sort_aux=last-date-received

would mean that if a new message is received in a
thread, that thread becomes the last one displayed (or the first, if
you have "set sort=reverse-threads".)

Note: For reversed $sort
order $sort_aux is reversed again (which is not the right thing to do,
but kept to not break any existing configuration setting).

sort_browser

Type: sort order
Default: alpha

Specifies how to sort entries in the file browser. By default, the
entries are sorted alphabetically. Valid values:

- alpha (alphabetically)

- date

- size

- unsorted

You may optionally use the "reverse-" prefix to specify reverse sorting
order (example: "set sort_browser=reverse-date").

sort_re

Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable is only useful when sorting by threads with
$strict_threads unset. In that case, it changes the heuristic
mutt uses to thread messages by subject. With $sort_re set, mutt will
only attach a message as the child of another message by subject if
the subject of the child message starts with a substring matching the
setting of $reply_regexp. With $sort_re unset, mutt will attach
the message whether or not this is the case, as long as the
non-$reply_regexp parts of both messages are identical.

spam_separator

Type: string
Default: ","

This variable controls what happens when multiple spam headers
are matched: if unset, each successive header will overwrite any
previous matches value for the spam label. If set, each successive
match will append to the previous, using this variable's value as a
separator.

spoolfile

Type: path
Default: ""

If your spool mailbox is in a non-default place where Mutt cannot find
it, you can specify its location with this variable. Mutt will
initially set this variable to the value of the environment
variable $MAIL or $MAILDIR if either is defined.

ssl_ca_certificates_file

Type: path
Default: ""

This variable specifies a file containing trusted CA certificates.
Any server certificate that is signed with one of these CA
certificates is also automatically accepted.

Example:

set ssl_ca_certificates_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

ssl_client_cert

Type: path
Default: ""

The file containing a client certificate and its associated private
key.

ssl_force_tls

Type: boolean
Default: no

If this variable is set, Mutt will require that all connections
to remote servers be encrypted. Furthermore it will attempt to
negotiate TLS even if the server does not advertise the capability,
since it would otherwise have to abort the connection anyway. This
option supersedes $ssl_starttls.

ssl_min_dh_prime_bits

Type: number
Default: 0

This variable specifies the minimum acceptable prime size (in bits)
for use in any Diffie-Hellman key exchange. A value of 0 will use
the default from the GNUTLS library.

ssl_starttls

Type: quadoption
Default: yes

If set (the default), mutt will attempt to use STARTTLS on servers
advertising the capability. When unset, mutt will not attempt to
use STARTTLS regardless of the server's capabilities.

ssl_use_sslv3

Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable specifies whether to attempt to use SSLv3 in the
SSL authentication process.

ssl_use_tlsv1

Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable specifies whether to attempt to use TLSv1.0 in the
SSL authentication process.

ssl_use_tlsv1_1

Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable specifies whether to attempt to use TLSv1.1 in the
SSL authentication process.

ssl_use_tlsv1_2

Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable specifies whether to attempt to use TLSv1.2 in the
SSL authentication process.

ssl_verify_dates

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set (the default), mutt will not automatically accept a server
certificate that is either not yet valid or already expired. You should
only unset this for particular known hosts, using the
<account-hook> function.

ssl_verify_host

Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set (the default), mutt will not automatically accept a server
certificate whose host name does not match the host used in your folder
URL. You should only unset this for particular known hosts, using
the <account-hook> function.

status_chars

Type: string
Default: "-*%A"

Controls the characters used by the "%r" indicator in
$status_format. The first character is used when the mailbox is
unchanged. The second is used when the mailbox has been changed, and
it needs to be resynchronized. The third is used if the mailbox is in
read-only mode, or if the mailbox will not be written when exiting
that mailbox (You can toggle whether to write changes to a mailbox
with the <toggle-write> operation, bound by default to "%"). The fourth
is used to indicate that the current folder has been opened in attach-
message mode (Certain operations like composing a new mail, replying,
forwarding, etc. are not permitted in this mode).

Controls the format of the status line displayed in the "index"
menu. This string is similar to $index_format, but has its own
set of printf(3)-like sequences:

%b

number of mailboxes with new mail *

%d

number of deleted messages *

%f

the full pathname of the current mailbox

%F

number of flagged messages *

%h

local hostname

%l

size (in bytes) of the current mailbox *

%L

size (in bytes) of the messages shown
(i.e., which match the current limit) *

%m

the number of messages in the mailbox *

%M

the number of messages shown (i.e., which match the current limit) *

%n

number of new messages in the mailbox *

%o

number of old unread messages *

%p

number of postponed messages *

%P

percentage of the way through the index

%r

modified/read-only/won't-write/attach-message indicator,
according to $status_chars

%s

current sorting mode ($sort)

%S

current aux sorting method ($sort_aux)

%t

number of tagged messages *

%u

number of unread messages *

%v

Mutt version string

%V

currently active limit pattern, if any *

%>X

right justify the rest of the string and pad with "X"

%|X

pad to the end of the line with "X"

%*X

soft-fill with character "X" as pad

For an explanation of "soft-fill", see the $index_format documentation.

* = can be optionally printed if nonzero

Some of the above sequences can be used to optionally print a string
if their value is nonzero. For example, you may only want to see the
number of flagged messages if such messages exist, since zero is not
particularly meaningful. To optionally print a string based upon one
of the above sequences, the following construct is used:

%?<sequence_char>?<optional_string>?

where sequence_char is a character from the table above, and
optional_string is the string you would like printed if
sequence_char is nonzero. optional_stringmay contain
other sequences as well as normal text, but you may not nest
optional strings.

Here is an example illustrating how to optionally print the number of
new messages in a mailbox:

%?n?%n new messages.?

You can also switch between two strings using the following construct:

%?<sequence_char>?<if_string>&<else_string>?

If the value of sequence_char is non-zero, if_string will
be expanded, otherwise else_string will be expanded.

You can force the result of any printf(3)-like sequence to be lowercase
by prefixing the sequence character with an underscore ("_") sign.
For example, if you want to display the local hostname in lowercase,
you would use: "%_h".

If you prefix the sequence character with a colon (":") character, mutt
will replace any dots in the expansion by underscores. This might be helpful
with IMAP folders that don't like dots in folder names.

status_on_top

Type: boolean
Default: no

Setting this variable causes the "status bar" to be displayed on
the first line of the screen rather than near the bottom. If $help
is set, too it'll be placed at the bottom.

strict_threads

Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, threading will only make use of the "In-Reply-To" and
"References:" fields when you $sort by message threads. By
default, messages with the same subject are grouped together in
"pseudo threads.". This may not always be desirable, such as in a
personal mailbox where you might have several unrelated messages with
the subjects like "hi" which will get grouped together. See also
$sort_re for a less drastic way of controlling this
behavior.

suspend

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When unset, mutt won't stop when the user presses the terminal's
susp key, usually "^Z". This is useful if you run mutt
inside an xterm using a command like "xterm -e mutt".

text_flowed

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, mutt will generate "format=flowed" bodies with a content type
of "text/plain; format=flowed".
This format is easier to handle for some mailing software, and generally
just looks like ordinary text. To actually make use of this format's
features, you'll need support in your editor.

Note that $indent_string is ignored when this option is set.

thorough_search

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Affects the ~b and ~h search operations described in
section "patterns". If set, the headers and body/attachments of
messages to be searched are decoded before searching. If unset,
messages are searched as they appear in the folder.

Users searching attachments or for non-ASCII characters should set
this value because decoding also includes MIME parsing/decoding and possible
character set conversions. Otherwise mutt will attempt to match against the
raw message received (for example quoted-printable encoded or with encoded
headers) which may lead to incorrect search results.

thread_received

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, mutt uses the date received rather than the date sent
to thread messages by subject.

tilde

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, the internal-pager will pad blank lines to the bottom of the
screen with a tilde ("~").

time_inc

Type: number
Default: 0

Along with $read_inc, $write_inc, and $net_inc, this
variable controls the frequency with which progress updates are
displayed. It suppresses updates less than $time_inc milliseconds
apart. This can improve throughput on systems with slow terminals,
or when running mutt on a remote system.

Also see the "tuning" section of the manual for performance considerations.

timeout

Type: number
Default: 600

When Mutt is waiting for user input either idling in menus or
in an interactive prompt, Mutt would block until input is
present. Depending on the context, this would prevent certain
operations from working, like checking for new mail or keeping
an IMAP connection alive.

This variable controls how many seconds Mutt will at most wait
until it aborts waiting for input, performs these operations and
continues to wait for input.

A value of zero or less will cause Mutt to never time out.

tmpdir

Type: path
Default: ""

This variable allows you to specify where Mutt will place its
temporary files needed for displaying and composing messages. If
this variable is not set, the environment variable $TMPDIR is
used. If $TMPDIR is not set then "/tmp" is used.

to_chars

Type: string
Default: " +TCFL"

Controls the character used to indicate mail addressed to you. The
first character is the one used when the mail is not addressed to your
address. The second is used when you are the only
recipient of the message. The third is when your address
appears in the "To:" header field, but you are not the only recipient of
the message. The fourth character is used when your
address is specified in the "Cc:" header field, but you are not the only
recipient. The fifth character is used to indicate mail that was sent
by you. The sixth character is used to indicate when a mail
was sent to a mailing-list you subscribe to.

trash

Type: path
Default: ""

If set, this variable specifies the path of the trash folder where the
mails marked for deletion will be moved, instead of being irremediably
purged.

NOTE: When you delete a message in the trash folder, it is really
deleted, so that you have a way to clean the trash.

tunnel

Type: string
Default: ""

Setting this variable will cause mutt to open a pipe to a command
instead of a raw socket. You may be able to use this to set up
preauthenticated connections to your IMAP/POP3/SMTP server. Example:

set tunnel="ssh -q mailhost.net /usr/local/libexec/imapd"

Note: For this example to work you must be able to log in to the remote
machine without having to enter a password.

When set, Mutt uses the tunnel for all remote connections.
Please see "account-hook" in the manual for how to use different
tunnel commands per connection.

uncollapse_jump

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, Mutt will jump to the next unread message, if any,
when the current thread is uncollapsed.

use_8bitmime

Type: boolean
Default: no

Warning: do not set this variable unless you are using a version
of sendmail which supports the -B8BITMIME flag (such as sendmail
8.8.x) or you may not be able to send mail.

When set, Mutt will invoke $sendmail with the -B8BITMIME
flag when sending 8-bit messages to enable ESMTP negotiation.

use_domain

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, Mutt will qualify all local addresses (ones without the
"@host" portion) with the value of $hostname. If unset, no
addresses will be qualified.

use_envelope_from

Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, mutt will set the envelope sender of the message.
If $envelope_from_address is set, it will be used as the sender
address. If unset, mutt will attempt to derive the sender from the
"From:" header.

Note that this information is passed to sendmail command using the
-f command line switch. Therefore setting this option is not useful
if the $sendmail variable already contains -f or if the
executable pointed to by $sendmail doesn't support the -f switch.

use_from

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, Mutt will generate the "From:" header field when
sending messages. If unset, no "From:" header field will be
generated unless the user explicitly sets one using the "my_hdr"
command.

use_idn

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, Mutt will show you international domain names decoded.
Note: You can use IDNs for addresses even if this is unset.
This variable only affects decoding.

use_ipv6

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, Mutt will look for IPv6 addresses of hosts it tries to
contact. If this option is unset, Mutt will restrict itself to IPv4 addresses.
Normally, the default should work.

user_agent

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, mutt will add a "User-Agent:" header to outgoing
messages, indicating which version of mutt was used for composing
them.

visual

Type: path
Default: ""

Specifies the visual editor to invoke when the "~v" command is
given in the built-in editor.

wait_key

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Controls whether Mutt will ask you to press a key after an external command
has been invoked by these functions: <shell-escape>,
<pipe-message>, <pipe-entry>, <print-message>,
and <print-entry> commands.

It is also used when viewing attachments with "auto_view", provided
that the corresponding mailcap entry has a needsterminal flag,
and the external program is interactive.

When set, Mutt will always ask for a key. When unset, Mutt will wait
for a key only if the external command returned a non-zero status.

weed

Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, mutt will weed headers when displaying, forwarding,
printing, or replying to messages.

wrap

Type: number
Default: 0

When set to a positive value, mutt will wrap text at $wrap characters.
When set to a negative value, mutt will wrap text so that there are $wrap
characters of empty space on the right side of the terminal. Setting it
to zero makes mutt wrap at the terminal width.

Also see $reflow_wrap.

wrap_headers

Type: number
Default: 78

This option specifies the number of characters to use for wrapping
an outgoing message's headers. Allowed values are between 78 and 998
inclusive.

Note: This option usually shouldn't be changed. RFC5233
recommends a line length of 78 (the default), so please only change
this setting when you know what you're doing.

wrap_search

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Controls whether searches wrap around the end.

When set, searches will wrap around the first (or last) item. When
unset, incremental searches will not wrap.

wrapmargin

Type: number
Default: 0

(DEPRECATED) Equivalent to setting $wrap with a negative value.

write_bcc

Type: boolean
Default: yes

Controls whether mutt writes out the Bcc header when saving
messages to FCC. Bcc headers will never be written to a message
when sending it. Note: this behavior is Debian specific.

write_inc

Type: number
Default: 10

When writing a mailbox, a message will be printed every
$write_inc messages to indicate progress. If set to 0, only a
single message will be displayed before writing a mailbox.

Also see the $read_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables and the
"tuning" section of the manual for performance considerations.

xterm_icon

Type: string
Default: "M%?n?AIL&ail?"

Controls the format of the icon title, as long as xterm_set_titles
is enabled. This string is identical in formatting to the one used by
"$status_format".

xterm_set_titles

Type: boolean
Default: no

Controls whether mutt sets the xterm title bar and icon name
(as long as you are in an appropriate terminal).